1) is a single core of the E5504 2.0GHz CPU powerful enough to run a 32 slot TF2 server (with some SM plugins) without lag?

2) does hyper-threading positively or negatively affect the performance of srcds? i ask because if there are benefits i'll just go for the E5520 2.26GHz w/ HT and Turbo-Boost. but i'm hesitant to going that route because in my past experience HT did more harm than good to srcds.

3) is 6GB triple channel RAM enough? for $100 more i can have a total of 9GB triple channel RAM. but i'm trying to save money!

(02-25-2010, 06:28 AM)Trizik Wrote: 1) is a single core of the E5504 2.0GHz CPU powerful enough to run a 32 slot TF2 server (with some SM plugins) without lag?

No. I would recommend closer to 3.0GHz per core for a 32-slot TF2 server.

(02-25-2010, 06:28 AM)Trizik Wrote: 2) does hyper-threading positively or negatively affect the performance of srcds? i ask because if there are benefits i'll just go for the E5520 2.26GHz w/ HT and Turbo-Boost. but i'm hesitant to going that route because in my past experience HT did more harm than good to srcds.

From my experience with an old P4 with HT, it helps a little bit, but nothing major.

(02-25-2010, 06:28 AM)Trizik Wrote: 3) is 6GB triple channel RAM enough? for $100 more i can have a total of 9GB triple channel RAM. but i'm trying to save money!

What ever is cheaper. I wouldn't go with a SSD because it's expensive and you'll probably need more space then a single, small SSD.

(02-25-2010, 06:28 AM)Trizik Wrote: 5) how much bandwidth am i looking at for 8 full 32 slot servers? i'm guessing ~32Mbps total throughput because i heard that a full 32 slot server requires about 4Mbps. is that accurate?

I think you'll need a fatter pipe.

(02-25-2010, 06:28 AM)Trizik Wrote: 6) are there issues with srcds on W2K3 64-bit?

fqdn Wrote:if you've seen the any of the matrix movies, a game server is not all that different. it runs a version of the game that handles the entire world for each client connected. that's the 2 sentence explanation.

just wanted to chime in and say 2k3 64bit windows should run fine with srcds. If you can get 2k8 it does run a lot better tho. If your gonna colo you may talk to the company your colo'ing with, they should be able to work your license into their mvls.

do you guys realize that the 2.0GHz i'm referring to is based on the Nehalem architecture, which is supposedly more powerful than the Core 2 based Harpertown 2.33GHz? i looked at statistics from several srcds admins running Harpertown systems and they swear a 32 slot TF2 server will run fine on a single 2.33GHz core of that system. does anyone have statistics against their claims?

fqdn Wrote:if you've seen the any of the matrix movies, a game server is not all that different. it runs a version of the game that handles the entire world for each client connected. that's the 2 sentence explanation.

fqdn Wrote:if you've seen the any of the matrix movies, a game server is not all that different. it runs a version of the game that handles the entire world for each client connected. that's the 2 sentence explanation.

(Just regarding Intel that is, because AMD has a different caching architecture)

I originally was going to get a desktop CPU to save $$, but I ended up getting 2x W3550 for my box.

Nehalem Xeon has one big advantage over the desktop version, that instead of a single QPI link, Xeon has 4. Therefore each core has direct access to a QPI link. How much that will help hosting SRCDS? I don't know yet, that's what I am going to find out with my box. So I have no idea rather a E5504 is sufficient or not, for hosting 32-slot TF2 per core.

About a year ago, the sweet spot for hosting 32-slot TF2, seemed to be Q6600, but from my personal experience, Q6600 can barely run a 32-slot TF2 per core, with the SourceMod plugins that I am using, which some of them are (besides the default ones from SourceMod):

I don't know how much system resources that those plugins are using (I can simply disable them to get an idea, but too lazy even for that), but I need them for my servers anyway.

Put aside the architecture for a moment, just talk about the raw speed, I personally would go for ~3.0 GHz.

My reason is, that nowaday it is hard to build up a decent player population with TF2 (I mostly play TF2, so not into hosting CS:S, or other Source games), so I might as well use my box, to host games like Red Dead Redemption, Brink, or whatever. Of course, those games aren't out yet, and we don't know what kind of multiplayer supports they will have. I am just using them to make my point about hosting other soon-to-be releases, than the current Source games.- HDD

I have made a couple posts here, about my initial experience with the OCZ SSD for hosting SRCDS.

Let me make it clear first, that so far I don't see a significant improvement, of in-game performance, over a SATA 3.0Gb/s 7200RPM, nor I am going to suggest anyone to use SSD instead of SATA, until I have used it for long enough to make a fair comment.

I am using the OCZ 30GB SSD for my box, because:

- Somebody got to be a lab rat.
- Originally I was thinking to get 2x WD 500GB SATA 3.0Gb/s, which was $111.98 (2x $55.99)
- For 1x WD 500GB, and 1x 30GB OCZ SSD, was $190.98 ($55.99 + $134.99), so $79 less for Starbucks (or I cut the tips... for one year)
- If not for testing, I would get a larger one than a 30GB (does it make sense? )

Another thing to think about, is that the currently TRIM doesn't help in case of overwriting an existing file, but again, I am not planning to use the SSD for 10 years.- Chassis

In my opinion, one thing you should put more thought into, is the chassis (and the PSU). As ideally, your box is running ~365/24/7, so even though the latest CPU are much cooler than P4 (my three P4 machines started acting funny, all because the heat of the CPU was killing the nearby IC), you want to use a chassis with good ventilation.

That's why I was thinking about getting a Dell server, but it was too expensive for me.
All of my above suggestions are based on my own limited experience as a casual end-user, and suggestions I got from members of this forum , and the few other ones.

My suggestions are just something for you to think about, and you might have to confirm with the more knowledgeable people.